USA v Canada

This post is about arthritis. Arthritis is a condition of the joints. It includes swelling, inflammation, pain and immobility. It is a chronic disease condition that contains at least 20 subtypes. The most common is osteoarthritis. Previous blog posts address this disease condition more in depth.

I return to the issue of arthritis today because of a conclusion offered by scientists in Canada who reviewed statistical information and discovered that the US had higher rates of arthritis than persons in Canada. Another interesting thing I learned from this study and Dr. Elizabeth Bradley is this acronym AAL. It stands for arthritis attributable activity limitations. Interesting.

First let me define two terms:
Prevalence is the amount of persons who have a certain condition at any given time, like a snapshot.
Incidence is the persons who will have the disease or the new cases of disease - so incidence cancer does not include people who are living with cancer already, but those who were just diagnosed.

The research study from the Toronto Western Research Institute found that Americans had higher prevalence of arthritis and disability associated with it, or AAL. It is not gender equal - the discrepency was higher between American and Canadian women.

Dr. Badley concludes that this is due to the higher prevalence of two other conditions in the USA> Anyone care to guess what they might be? Obesity and Sedentary Activity. She noted that American women are especially overweight and inactive compared to Canadian women but also to American men.

I did a quick search, using the USA's health survey reported on the CDC website and also the Public Health Agency of Canada. Both combine overweight and obesity in their data collection and the real numbers are USA 32-35% vs Canada 23-25%.

Why does that matter? According to the CDC, WHO, and any reputable health organization, one of the modifiable or controllable risk factors for arthritis is obesity. The CDCs website actually recommends that people be physically active and maintain healthy weights not only to prevent arthritis but to manage it. (the difference between US and Canada wasn't just prevalence but also AAL. If we continue to be overweight and sedentary after arthritis diagnosis we are going to have higher rates of limitations as well)

This is why the research authors offer a call for a public health campaign that urges increased physical activity and healthy weight maintenance as a means to reduce incidence of arthritis.